Watching Fall River city government sometimes seems like watching a mystery unfold. Although Mayor Will Flanagan has revealed another clue, “The Mystery of the Landfill Closure” continues.

Flanagan’s announcement Friday that the city would not be privatizing the city’s trash hauling services leaves more questions than answers — and comes with a big caveat: It’s contingent on the City Council’s approval of the mayor’s proposed budget.

Citing a lower cost of keeping the trash-hauling services in house, Flanagan on Friday told Community Maintenance Department employees that sanitation workers would remain employed picking up the city’s trash. After weighing the various proposals both from the Community Maintenance Department and private companies that put in bids for the trash hauling services, Flanagan said it was a matter of dollars and cents. “When you compared privatization to nonprivatization, there was a higher cost to privatize,” Flanagan said.

While the 35 sanitation workers must be relieved that they got an answer about their future employment with the city, Fall River is left in suspense with the multi-million dollar question: Will the city be moving to pay-as-you-throw trash services or will trash continue to be picked up free of charge to residents?

Flanagan had previously expressed opposition to pay-as-you-throw, but on Friday he said that charging residents for trash bags through the pay-as-you-throw system “would generate millions in revenue” and “is still on the table.”

The cost of privatization, Flanagan said, would be around $4.9 million, while the cost of keeping it in-house was $3.8 million.

Flanagan has yet to explain where the trash will go once the landfill closes. We’ll apparently have to stay tuned until Flanagan presents his draft budget to the City Council, for answers. While the council has been opposed to privatization, it has also strongly opposed pay-as-you-throw as an option.

Meanwhile, although the council’s Committee on Health and Environmental Affairs had hosted hearings on the trash hauling proposals, it declined to make a final decision, leaving the final call in the hands of the mayor. However, the decision may actually be in the council’s hands after all. The decision to retain the Community Maintenance Department trash hauling is also contingent upon the council’s adoption of the budget.

With significant budgetary issues still unresolved, Fall River does not need any more cliffhangers about what happens with trash pickup after the city’s landfill closes in October. Unfortunately, we’ll have to remain in suspense and tune in in June, when “The Mystery of the Landfill Closure” continues live from Government Center.